INDIAN SATELLITE GSAT-10 TO BE LAUNCHED IN 2 MONTHS - India's 3400-kg communication satellite GSAT-10 is now ready to be shipped to the spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana for launch by European space consortium Arianespace in two months, according to Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman, K Radhakrishnan. More (Source: Bernama - Jul 17)
INDIAN ASTRONOMY SATELLITE TO STUDY UNIVERSE AT MULTI-WAVELENGTHS - Astrosat, the $50 million astronomy satellite India will put in polar circular orbit in 2013, will study the universe at multi-wavelengths for the first time, a senior space agency official said. "The Astrosat mission will study for the first time the cosmic sources of the vast universe at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray wavebands simultaneously," state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientific secretary V. Koteshwar Rao said. More (Source: Zee News - Jul 17)
SOYUZ TMA-05M LAUNCHES CREW FOR THE SPACE STATION - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian commander, a NASA flight engineer and a Japanese astronaut -- all veteran space travelers -- blasted off and streaked into orbit late Saturday (U.S. time), the first leg of a two-day flight to the International Space Station. Under a clear blue sky, the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:40:03 p.m. EDT Saturday (GMT-4; 8:40 a.m. local time) and quickly climbed away atop a rush of fiery exhaust. More (Source: Spaceflight Now - Jul 16)
BRANSON OFFERS A SERVICE TO LAUNCH SMALL SATELLITES - Virgin Galactic, the space venture founded by Richard Branson, the British billionaire, said Wednesday that it planned to develop a rocket that would carry small satellites into orbit at a fraction of the current cost. The news came on the third day of the Farnborough International Airshow, where Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two largest commercial jet makers, announced nearly $7 billion in aircraft orders. More (Source: New York Times - Jul 13)
TELSTAR 1: THE LITTLE SATELLITE THAT CREATED THE MODERN WORLD 50 YEARS AGO - When the Telstar 1 satellite successfully launched 50 years ago, the world got a little smaller. Telstar, a collaboration between U.S., French, and British broadcasting agencies, was the world’s first active communication satellite, enabling TV programs to be broadcast across the Atlantic. The 3-foot-long satellite was also the first to send the television signals, telephone calls, and fax images through space. More (Source: Wired.com - Jul 12)
SES-5 TO PROVIDE FRESH SATELLITE CAPACITY IN MULTIPLE FREQUENCY BANDS TO EUROPE, AFRICA AND THE MIDD - SES S.A. announced that the SES-5 satellite roared into space on board an ILS Proton Breeze M booster today at 00:38:30 am Baikonur time (20:38)(20:2012). After a 9-hour, 12-minute mission, the Breeze M upper stage of the Proton rocket successfully released the SES-5 satellite directly into geostationary transfer orbit. More (Source: MarketWatch - Jul 11)
AVANTI COMMUNICATIONS... A HIGH SPOT FOR HYLAS-2 (SATELLITE) - Avanti Communications Group plc has announced that HYLAS 2, its second satellite, will launch at approximately 9.50 p.m. U.K.-time on August 2, 2012, via an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. HYLAS 2, which has almost three times the bandwidth capacity of HYLAS 1, will substantially increase the Company’s international coverage. More (Source: SatNews Publishers - Jul 9)
EUROPEAN ROCKET LAUNCHES NEW US SATELLITE, WEATHER-TRACKING SPACECRAFT - A European-built rocket roared into space from South America Thursday (July 5) carrying two new satellites on very different missions. The unmanned Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from a pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, to send an American communication satellite and European weather-monitoring spacecraft into orbit. Liftoff occurred at 5:36 p.m. EDT (2136 GMT). More (Source: Space.com - Jul 7)
CHENG: CHINA’S SPACE CHALLENGE TO AMERICA - At the dawn of the Space Age, China lagged far behind the United States and the Soviet Union. Beijing didn’t even launch its first satellite until 1970. But China has made remarkable progress. On June 24, three Chinese astronauts successfully docked their Shenzhou spacecraft with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab. The mission underscored again China’s interest in manned spaceflight. And the manual docking itself marked a major step toward a greater Chinese presence in space, as docking and extended missions are essential to any space station or lunar mission. More (Source: Washington Times - Jul 5)
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